Aurum lifts Boundiali resource to 3.84 million ounces after targeted drilling campaign

Aurum Resources has expanded the mineral resource at its Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire to 125.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 1 g/t, representing 3.84 million ounces of gold after a 19 per cent increase.

The uplift followed a focused infill drilling campaign aimed at the BST1, BMT1 and BMT3 deposits, which converted about 0.62 million ounces of gold from the inferred category into the higher-confidence indicated classification.

That conversion has taken the project’s total indicated resource to 71.5 million tonnes at 1 g/t, or 2.33 million ounces, a rise of roughly 37 per cent in indicated ounces across the Boundiali inventory.

Aurum also reported a maiden inferred resource at a new deposit called BMT2 in the northern part of its 80 per cent-held BM joint venture area. BMT2 is estimated at 4.4 million tonnes grading 0.9 g/t for 130,000 ounces of gold and increases the number of deposits carrying resources at Boundiali to seven.

Total combined inferred resources for the project now stand at 53.6 million tonnes at an updated average grade of 0.9 g/t, equal to 1.5 million ounces of gold.

Management said the additional indicated ounces will feed an ore reserve update that will form part of a definitive feasibility study scheduled for later this year, taking the project through the next stage of technical work required for a development decision.

Aurum attributes the rapid resource build to its in-house drilling capability: the company operates a fleet of 16 diamond drill rigs and has grown Boundiali from a greenfields discovery to a 3.84 million ounce asset in under three years. It is running an expanded 150,000-metre drilling program for calendar 2026 with all rigs active.

The Boundiali project sits in central north Côte d’Ivoire within the same greenstone belt that hosts large regional gold operations, including Resolute Mining’s 11.5 million ounce Syama mine in Mali and Perseus Mining’s 1.4 million ounce Sissingué mine near the Ivorian-Malian border. Aurum reported environmental approvals in May and delivered a prefeasibility study and a maiden ore reserve in June.

Aurum’s group resource base, which includes the nearby Napié project with 1.16 million ounces, now totals about five million ounces of gold. The company held more than A$95 million in cash at the end of September to fund drilling, studies and permitting as it seeks mining licences, completes the DFS and targets first gold in the first half of 2028.